technique opinions pls...Iron infested cellar holes

[radarwill]

I've got more than a few old cellar holes I've began to hunt. All the sites have one thing in common; they are infested with rusty metal and all sorts of junk! In all metal mode the detector sounds like it's shooting on fully automatic. Most of the trash is just below the surface. I'm very concerned that the iron is masking the good stuff.

How would you go about hunting these sites?
How about doing AM and listening for narrow and deep targets?
Where do you think the best place to start is; the hole itself or maybe away from the structure?

Any thoughts will be appreciated.
Thanks

 

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[DFX-SCOTT]

Flip to all metal mode, then when you find a target by its self, about the size of a coin,
switch back to discriminate mode and see what it says. ( most of the time its nails for me )

when i do this i can almost see what is in the gound.
Not literally, but i can hear if it is metal 15 inches around or if Im in an area that has 5 penny size objects side by side
Some times the sounds (items) run from one target in to another.
learning to switch back and forth from all metal to discriminate mode is a nice technique

Because if you get a target that is two feet in diameter, then you scan it and it comes back iron, you just found two feet of iron without
digging, then you get a target that says coin size and loud as heel, switch to discriminate mode and it reads good or bad!
you get the point right.
sometimes when i use this techniqe it gets on my nerves and i go back to sweeping, but i will change it up abit
Also if you pinpoint a deep object 6 inches or so and you get a good nickle or pull tab reading, dig it!
the deeper the target the discrimination down plays what it really is!
Example I thought I was diging a nickle 6 inches when i got it to the surface it changed tone and turned in to a DIME.
hope this helps

 

[Hemisteve]

Try using a large industrial magnet and dragging along the surface. That might clean it up enough to use your MD.
If it is still bad, you might need to shovel and screen the dirt.

Good Luck
Steve

 

[DFX-SCOTT]

Is an old celler hole the same thing as a houses foundation?
or is a celler hole something different?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

DFX-Scott, if I understand the type of site that RadarWill is talking about, your suggestion of checking back and forth in all-metal would probably be useless. All-metal would merely produce a non-stop signal for yards and yards in each direction. There can simply be so much iron (nails, steel wire, cast-iron shards, etc....) that they appear to be an endless signal. So close and so many that there is no separation of targets. Just a blanket. I've seen ruins sites like this. The only way to get conductive targets from the mess is to hope that there's a "peak" at them, or "see through" smaller pieces of iron. Like, if you just put one nail over a coin, you might get a squak .... like an "average" of the nails drawing the target's TID down, but still retain a TID high enough that you can tell something's trying to bleed through. But once you put 3 or 4 nails over a coin, your machine will give you nothing but an iron reject

About the only thing you can do is get a machine that excells in averaging. Usually the deeper seeking machines (XLT, Explorer, CZ6 etc...) are not as good for averaging. You can put sometimes a nail or two over a coin, and the signal becomes so bad, that you'd have to admit you'd pass it in the field. But with a 2-filter machine, (like the Whites Classics, and any of various tesoros - Sabre, El Dorado, shadow, etc...) you can put 2 to 3 nails over a coin, and often still get a positive beep. The problem is, you'll not get as deep as powerhouse detectors. So it's a trade off.

The only other thing to do is do dig out every single signal in all-metal mode

 

[rebelinmass]

I've been hitting an old 1800's homesite as well in Lunenburg, Haven't found nothing of value yet. I've been using jewlery mode to cut out some iron but have been digging two tons of iron out still. My recommendation would be to email me and we'll hit it together.

Rebelinmass
Lunenburg,ma

 

[silverswede]

If you have the time, ambition, and a good buddy this has worked for me. We spread a plastic tarp along side the cellar hole, one starts in with a good shovel pitching the dirt on the tarp. The other spreads it and detects it separating out the metal. We ran on low discrimination to avoid the rusty bits and changed off with the shovel. When your're through throw the dirt back in the hole. We found no coins but a few relics and many, many fruit jar lids. guess ours was a fruit cellar. Also check the area under where the tarp will be before starting and clean it of metal. H.H.

 

[DFX-SCOTT]

Sounds like a real tough area to hunt!
I guess , good luck
you could always rent a bobcat, or skid loader and clear the top layer,
But you would have to be pretty hard core to do something like that.
Good luck
scott.

 

[radarwill]

Thanks for all the input. The iron seems to thin when I'm 20 yards from the holes. I'll guess I'll have to search away from the holes and probally around the many rock walls around the property.

 

[BuckleBoy]

You NEED to get into the iron to get the goodies. Iron is your friend. It tells you where the occupation and traffic was years ago. The best finds on a site are usually waiting patiently for you in an iron patch. Here's what I do with sites like that: I dig out all the BIG iron and iron with BIG halos, and then (in spite of the nails) I can pick good targets out of the site. It's always slow going after the big iron is out, but it is rewarding. Make sure you grid it off in several directions after the big iron comes out--and make sure you dig signals that only sound good in one direction due to the masking of the nails, but it CAN be done.

The BIG IRON must go, first.


-Buckleboy

 

[boogeyman]

Try using one of the 800lb pull magnets after raking. Then as stated above put everything on a tarp, I used plywood check that and replace the dirt. Save the iron, at todays prices it might just about pay for batteries or a soda. Not to mention the possible iron or tin relics! I did this at one site and the property owner was ecstatic that I'd cleaned up all the "cr*p" for him. Got me access to other properties he owned whenever I wanted.

 

[caretaker]

I've done a couple of these sites, be glad it has iron, it scared all the other detectors away, detect it and look for spikes, my detector will bounce bad to good signal, then sift the area, if you don't ,then the next MDer will and find the goodies, these sites take work, but it might have the finds of a life time there, have fun, the last cellar hole I dug out, I took over 200 embossed bottles out

 

[ark turtle]

I've been hitting an old 1800's homesite as well in Lunenburg, Haven't found nothing of value yet. I've been using jewlery mode to cut out some iron but have been digging two tons of iron out still. My recommendation would be to email me and we'll hit it together.

Rebelinmass
Lunenburg,ma

LIke your flag, Keep up the good work....

ark turtle

 

[radarwill]

I've been hitting an old 1800's homesite as well in Lunenburg, Haven't found nothing of value yet. I've been using jewlery mode to cut out some iron but have been digging two tons of iron out still. My recommendation would be to email me and we'll hit it together.

Rebelinmass
Lunenburg,ma

LIke your flag, Keep up the good work....

ark turtle

I like it also. I'm orignally from Southeast TN. Go VOLS!!